OSHCstudents – When you start your health cover, you might be required to wait sometime before you can access all the benefits. This time is called the waiting period. But if you change your health insurance, will you have to wait again? Let’s find out!

If you’re swapping to an equal level of cover, by law, you won’t have to wait again. This is important because it protects your choices. You need to be able to weigh up your choices, without being penalized.

It’s called ‘continuity of cover’, and it means:

• If you switch to an equal level of cover at another insurer, you maintain your cover, without serving waiting periods again. Some health insurers will allow a small period of time between the end of your old policy, and the start of your new one, but this varies. It’s worth checking this with your new insurer.
• If there are any higher benefits, or new services included in your new cover, you will generally serve waiting periods for those things only. Any limits you’ve used at your old insurer also count to your new limits.
• You can still access your previous level of cover while waiting for higher cover to kick in.

OSHCstudents (source: Bupa)